Isotope
by June Daowen Lei
Sisyphus Variation
Even stranger,
that the edge, once sharp
is no longer:
and that things,
all of them,
take to rounding out.
This is a trick
of physics, the
myth of Sisyphus,
it is just,
logistically,
seismologically,
ridiculous. The stone
would become smooth
from all that rolling.
Smooth
from the salt grease
of his hands, the friction
of rolling in
and pulling back
as an ocean, or remorse.
Perhaps the stone is dense.
perhaps it is granite
studded with mica,
or iron, ore,
a composite mineral
passing time as we each do.
It is here,
and it has a half life,
so it is too barrelling towards an elsewhere.
Even stranger,
that a tactic of time
reassembles texture.
So someday, near eternity,
Sisyphus,
once pushing stone,
will no longer. Someday
near eternity,
he will find himself pushing
melon, then
pebble, then
pearl.